Phillip Redman
Research VP
10 years at Gartner
17 years IT industry
Phillip Redman is a research vice president in Gartner Research, where he leads mobile research in the network services and infrastructure group. Mr. Redman brings almost 15 years of experience in the wireless mobile and telecommunications industry… . Read Full Bio
by Phillip Redman | January 18, 2012 | Comments Off
Wireless technology really gets a bad rap. For all its incredible capabilities, connecting voice and data services at 65 MPH, delivering video in your hand, providing real-time interaction, wireless technology has become to known as a fickle, unreliabe connection. It may be true for a lot of what people encounter as general purpose use (WiFi hotspots, AT&T 3G) but wireless technology has been used for many years, reliably in many critical situations. The U.S. government relies on wireless technology to remotely control multi-million dollar drones, provide critical in-the-battle field communications and for guidance systems. More locally public safety uses its wireless networks to dispatch fire and police as well as many other applications. So specialized wireless is used dependably and in life-threatening situations. It appears now it may even be trusted in the data center!
The New York Times on Sunday had a great article about some research Microsoft was doing in their data centers. Using high-speed, 60 GHz directional antennas, they are able to reliably alleviate traffic-congested servers by wirelessly moving traffic to less congested servers, right there in the data center. The design sped up traffic by at least 45 percent in 95 percent of the cases tested. It’s secure because it is point-to-point–and the signal can be encrypted. The 60 GHz band is an unlicensed band which features a large amount of bandwidth globally. The large bandwidth means that a very high volume of information can be transmitted wirelessly and reliably–specifications would pin typical throughput at almost 5 Gbps, compared to approximately 50 Mbps over most WiFi systems today. Besides data centers, multiple applications can benefit from this spectrum and is being looked at to support wireless HDTV, broadband cable replacements, wireless laptop docking stations and backhaul (like in the data center). The IEEE is working on the 802.11ad specification to bring this into homes and integrate it into WiFi systems using multi-band radios. I don’t expect to see this widely deployed in the next few years, but it shows that today’s capabilities are reaching beyond what the average wireless use case is today–not your parent’s AM radio!
Category: Uncategorized Tags:
by Phillip Redman | January 17, 2012 | Comments Off
It’s nothing new: everyone wants more choice and that includes what mobile device they want to use also. Mobile handheld devices span both corporate and personal uses so it’s only natural as more choices emerged that individuals would want to bring their own device (BYOD) to work. Apple iPhone has generally been that choice and will be for 2012 also. Companies aren’t doing this to save money, but many hope that by also moving from corporate to individual-liable services there will be cost savings, which as we’ve said in the past–isn’t true.
But one things companies can do to help keep costs down, is do a better job of negotiating rates for their non-liable employees. I’ve been assessing cellular contracts for years, and I’ve been mostly focusing on the direct costs to the enterprise through corporate-liable users. Family and friends rates weren’t something I paid much attention too because it didn’t heavily impact the spend of the company. It was a nice perk to help lower costs for employee relations. But as more companies are moving to provide reimbursements and stipends to their employees versus being directly billed, getting those discounts for individual-liable users becomes more important. The good news is that terms are getting better for these types of users, at least in the United States, because carriers see the number of corporate-liable users diminishing. Carriers will negotiate terms for individual-liable users just like they will for corporate-liable, and enterprises should start spending more time negotiating for both types of accounts.
Category: Apple Mobile Device Management Networks mobile phones mobility management wireless carriers Tags: mobile policy
by Phillip Redman | December 2, 2011 | Comments Off
Today we have something from one of my colleagues, Sylvain Fabre, who has recently put together a collection of research on cellular 4G. Sylvain Fabre is a research director in the Carrier Network Infrastructure group of Gartner.
4G: The Next Frontier for Celluar Networks
Recently, a committee of UK members of parliament criticized mobile operators for fighting over how to share out the airwaves that will deliver the country’s next-generation services. The UK is currently on track to be one of the last European countries to hold its fourth-generation (4G) auction, and politicians do not think should be delayed further by clashes between mobile operators. This is not surprising given that 4G will change the future of the mobile broadband experience for both consumers and business users, and further delays could be damaging to UK businesses. Beyond the technology evolution, what’s the real business case is for communications service providers (CSPs) to even try and keep up with subscriber demand for mobile data by providing an improved access network?
After all, there is clear expenditure for CSPs with diminishing returns. Indeed, across all regions there is increased pressure for CSPs to consolidate in order to gain the necessary scale to maintain profitability, as significant additional network expenditure is occurring. As a result, CSPs are exploring what new services 4G can offer with true differentiation and a real chance for premium pricing, above and beyond what 3G can already offer. In our Special Report, “4G: The Next Frontier for Celluar Networks,” we examine the latest trends, potential uses and best practices regarding the use of fourth-generation technology.
At present, the main technology being used for 4G is Long Term Evolution (LTE), which may not be quite 4G but is the first logical step on the road to it. Although the optimal pricing model and business case for the use of 4G by CSPs is still being worked out, the high speeds and lower latency offered should provide CSPs with an opportunity to serve the enterprise segment. This represents a new departure for CSPs who should make sure that they develop clear use cases for the enterprise market that illustrate the potential value of 4G.
Through 2020, as both the volume of connected things increases and the use of the data received from things gets used meaningfully, things will create the majority of meaningful interactions on the Internet and utilize the Internet in ways that save money, create value, improve products, and enhance experiences for enterprises and consumers. This will have massive implications for not only the amounts of data being moved across mobile networks, but also the signaling load – as the majority of connections will be wireless, rather than fixed. This is a unique opportunity for CSPs to provide the necessary wireless connectivity using 4G – first LTE and then LTE Advanced (LTE-A). The bottom line is that fourth-generation technology offers many opportunities to communications service providers in several verticals, beyond just telecommunications. But it also requires that significant changes are made to network and business models.
Category: 4G Networks Strategic Planning Technology Uncategorized cellular Tags: 4G, cellular, wireless
by Phillip Redman | November 14, 2011 | Comments Off
Alright I’ve waited long enough. All this talk about cloud was making me hungry. No really, being a telecom analyst and watching all these computing geeks talk about cloud computing while the fixed and mobile network providers basically invented the cloud, has been tough. Haven’t network providers been using the “cloud” diagram for years? And how do you access the cloud without a network? Enough said. But, OK, now they can store apps and data there not just provide access, but you know what I mean. So what about the mobile impact?
I’ve been conflicted about the impact of cloud computing on the mobile enterprise (and by cloud I do not mean some of the crazy, all-encompassing definitions of the mobile ecosystem I’ve seen out there). On one hand, the idea of highly scalable, cost-efficient, accessible apps and data is very compelling to the mobile enterprise and user that has seen few standards on mobile platforms. But the thing is, mobile users are not always connected (well) to the network, so offline apps and content is still a necessity. So I’ve sat out this one for a while until the time was right, but 2012 is going to see some important research into this mobile cloud area. Mobile networks are getting faster and with multiple technologies supplying additional access to the mobile user, is the idea of ubiquitous wireless networks that far behind?
To kick off this newer research area, come see my presentation at the Gartner Data Center Conference in Las Vegas from December 5-8. I will be doing a presentation there on “Managing Mobility In The Cloud” which is going to kick off my mobile cloud research for 2012. Come see what is already happening in the mobile cloud, what the drivers and opportunities are, who are some of the main vendors and most important, what will be the impact of the mobile cloud on enterprises and users in the next few years. Hope to see you there!
Category: Applications Cloud Mobile Device Management cellular mobility management Tags: DC-Summit-NA
by Phillip Redman | November 11, 2011 | 1 Comment
I just got back from Dallas where the annual LTE North America conference was held this week. This is a conflation of telecom industry people that contribute hardware, software and services to the wireless industry–from CEOs to lowly analysts. Attendance was up from last year, when LTE networks weren’t even born yet. So the industry is certainly gearing itself up for this new wireless network technology. Some takeaways and thoughts from the show:
- Everyone is real excited about the new possibilities that LTE may bring, it’s just that no one knows what they may be yet! I led a table discussion on future LTE applications, and it was packed. But there were no real conclusions over what apps will drive LTE adoption. There was consensus on one point though: network providers will add value when scale is needed, otherwise they will lose on the app market.
- Verizon Wireless currently has the biggest LTE network in the world, covering almost 200 million POPs in the US. It has been, by far, the most aggressive in launching this new technology. Yet–it had virtually no presence at the conference and it didn’t really share very much beyond its (politically influenced) initiatives in the rural markets. Huh? Come and share what you have learned being a leader. It’s good for the whole industry. Maybe it was afraid it would have to discuss the outage that happened in the Spring.
- New to the conference this year was Sprint. Its CTO Stephen Bye did a nice job of explaining its position on LTE. It said that LTE is going to be a global technology and they wanted to be a part of that. Sounded like something I told them four years ago before they chased the WiMAX dog. To be honest, I had a hard time listening though when in the first part of his speech he claimed that the Nextel acquisition went well. Huh? So all that loss of customers was a good thing? One more thing here too–no mention of WiFi as a strategy, which I think, again is a miss.
- AT&T probably had the biggest “announcement” claiming it was going to launch the next version of LTE, LTE-Advanced in 2013. LTE-Advanced calls for mobile speeds up to 500 mbps. This was surprising to hear, but don’t be surprised if this doesn’t get pushed out a year or two.
There’s no doubt that LTE is a big step forward in service capability. But the industry has a long way to success here, and really needs to dig deep on differentiating the service beyond speeds and to think of new business models. Currently LTE is sold the same way as 3G services are, nothing new here. There was some talk of change, but there’s still a long way to go for sure.
See our new research collection on 4G:
4G: The Next Frontier for Cellular Networks (http://www.gartner.com/resId=1836719)
Category: AT&T Networks Sprint Nextel cellular wireless carriers Tags: LTE, mobile broadband
by Phillip Redman | October 13, 2011 | Comments Off
It wasn’t quite a yawn, but there was far less outcry this week than there would have been two years ago since BlackBerry service was out for three days. As you probably know by now, a core switch failure led to intermittent delays and message delivery failures in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Backlog and cross-Atlantic switching connections even caused disruptions in the United States. Most everybody is up now. The interesting thing is not how it may have been poorly handled and communicated or how high the inconvenience the impact of the outage was to mobile users or costs to lost business. What’s interesting to me is that there wasn’t a bigger outcry from IT managers. Why is that? Many companies today have as many iPhones as they do BlackBerry devices. Fewer of their employees, and their businesses, were impacted by the outage. No doubt it caused havoc for many, but this diversity in mobile devices made it easier to absorb.
Though this outage was a doozy, and not its first, RIM generally has done a great job in the past of having a highly reliable, highly secure system. No doubt this has led companies to believe in the safe and secure use of wireless data on other platforms–though that may not be true. I don’t think this outage will lead to a faster move off of BlackBerry onto other platforms, but it doesn’t build a stronger case to stay. Both Apple and Android platforms have their own security and management issues. But at least one thing can be said, that enterprises supporting a diverse environment will be impacted less if one of them goes down. Just another advantage to non-standardization.
Category: RIM Uncategorized cellular mobile phones Tags:
by Phillip Redman | August 15, 2011 | 5 Comments
They say war makes strange bedfellows, and so does business. Google announced its acquisition of Motorola Mobility Inc. (MMI), the recently spun-off cellular handset and set-top box maker. MMI primarily sells its products to telcos–cable and wireless/wireline service providers, customers that Google has had a tenuous relationship with at best. Google has been a force behind net neutrality regulation in the US, trying to prevent being charged for providing its services across Internet providers. However these same providers watch the traffic on their networks (YouTube being the number one instigator) increase with content from a variety of sources gaining share from Google and others. These service providers are fighting for their mind and revenue share, and fighting with Google about who pays. And so are they going to trust Google/Motorola Mobility, will they continue to buy phones and set-top boxes from them?
Everyone is focusing on the handset manufactures in this deal. Can Google continue to support Samsung and HTC as well as compete against them? This scenario has never succeeded in the mobile industry. To me, the real interesting part of this deal is how will the telcos react? Since they know Google would like to take over the content delivery business, albeit riding on their pipes, how far will they let them go? And do telcos have a choice? Today, customers can get content from a variety of sources on the Internet and stream it to their mobile tablets, smartphones, TVs and PCs–without a box from a provider (though they still need a connection). The providers have locked in content–with premium channels like HBO–but how long will that last? Consumers are looking to NetFlix, Hulu, MLB and others and will eventually stop ordering cable TV. This deal is just another blow to the traditional telcos, pushing them further towards commoditization and being a pipe. How will they fight back? Is their future only in providing the connection? This will be interesting.
One thing for sure though–it has changed the mobile handset market forever, with names like RIM, Nokia and Motorola no longer driving the market, but for the foreseeable future, Apple and Google. Today software and content are key to success in the market, not how small or how cool your phone is. It’s a welcome change.
Category: Android Google HTC Motorola Networks Policy Samsung mobile phones wireless carriers Tags:
by Phillip Redman | July 8, 2011 | Comments Off
About ten years ago, millions of Wi-Fi hotspots began their emergence to offer those with Wi-Fi-enabled devices wireless high-speed access in hotels, coffee shops and airports (to name a few). At that time, remotes access was supported mainly through an Ethernet hook-up or even a RJ11 jack into a wired telephone! This was just the beginning of the real mobile revolution and pre-3G cellular networks were still averaging 10-50 kbps, while 802.11b Wi-Fi (which still is predominate today in hotspots) was hundreds of kbps. At the time, I had to field many requests from clients and press about which would win as the main wide area network provider: emerging cellular broadband or these newer Wi-Fi Hotspot providers looking to cover the world on access point at a time. My answer was always the same: neither. And it looks like that point is finally coming true.
I said neither because neither had the right mix of capability and cost to support everywhere access, all the time. My vision at the time was to link personal, local and wide area wireless networking technologies to provide the most seamless, robust coverage possible (we called it the SupraNet). But instead it turned into a battle, with eventually faster 3G speeds relegating Wi-Fi hotspots to a number of small providers, with little integration and a niche services.
Fast forward to today and a complete irony: the success of 3G services is driving mobile operators to ever increasingly use Wi-Fi to offload the demand for data services over 3G. It is estimated that through the use of home and public hotspots, 30% of data traffic from smartphones and tablets goes over a Wi-Fi connection in the United States. And many operators like BT, Vodafone and AT&T have invested in and are expanding their Wi-Fi capabilities. But it is still a fractured market. If I buy Wi-Fi services from one vendor, what happens when there isn’t any coverage from them? Well finally we are looking at a global Wi-Fi hotspot with interoperability and roaming on a global scale. The Wireless Broadband Alliance, which is a large group of hardware and service providers have started a next-generation trial looking at increasing coverage and roaming across the globe.
Two things beyond the obvious that need to come out of this. First, operators are primarily looking at Wi-Fi as a way to offload 3G traffic. Instead, I’d like to see them embrace Wi-Fi as a legitimate wireless network technology that can be used for both voice and data services inside and outside. It should be looked at as another tool to increase both coverage and capacity in an effort to provide ubiquitous networking. Second, I’d like to see operators include Wi-Fi services in current networking charges, not additional. Wi-Fi benefits both the user (with increased coverage and capability) but also the operator (with increased coverage and lower backhaul costs). If operators elect to add additional charges to using Wi-Fi, I think this will have limited success. Today, for example, AT&T allows Wi-Fi access to its customers domestically at no additional charge. It makes sense that for international that there would be an upcharge, but network operators need to find a way to allow even great domestic coverage without any additional charges. I think there is a great opportunity for carriers to finally embrace Wi-Fi, which will increase the capabilities of their cellular networks today.
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by Phillip Redman | May 13, 2011 | Comments Off
This is another post about the ubiquity of the mobile phone, because that’s all what people are talking about. The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January called it the “Smartphone Era” (finally picking up on what the rest of us have known for some time), meaning the end of the “PC Era.” It seems like everyone wants a mobile app for their customers, partners and employees. OK, it is exploding, but are we headed straight into the Trough of Disillusionment? Complaints about coverage and network quality and speed come in about every wireless service provider. The irony is as the wireless phone is used more, the weaknesses become more apparent too. And it isn’t getting better. Even as next generation networks based on LTE are just arriving, it will be a challenge, and expensive, for the wireless providers to match the build-out of its current 3G network, let alone improve on coverage, especially inside the building (home, office, airport etc.), where anywhere from 40-70% of wireless calls and session are established.
It turns out that even though LTE is being rolled-out at a lower frequency than 3G (700MHz vs. 3G at 850/1900 MHz in the U.S.), to gain the promised higher speeds, you need to be closer to the center of the cell site. It has a more precipitous drop-off in speed than today’s 3G technologies–meaning the farther away you are from the base station, the slower your data speeds will be. That also means it may have a harder time penetrating inside our houses and offices, also delivering lower speeds unless there is a higher density of tower build-outs than there is for 3G today. Or, service providers can install in-building technologies–like femtocells or distributed antenna systems. But providing every building this capability is expensive, right? Yes, but AT&T thinks building out the right ones can offer quite the payback. I just came back from its annual industry analyst conference, and in a separate meeting, head of business solutions John Stankey told me they are all-in on distributed antenna systems (DAS). He gave us an example where they provided a DAS for one large building in Manhattan, and switch 40% of the traffic of its macro network and onto the private DAS. DAS usually costs $1-$3 per square foot, so it’s not the right solution everywhere, in my opinion, but one AT&T is getting firmly behind. This isn’t new in the industry, under its Custom Network Solutions group, Sprint Nextel has been quietly lighting up hundreds of locations a year.
I think for certain instances, DAS can be a great solution, especially a vendor neutral system that can support multiple operators and technologies over a single antenna system. But it is too expensive to extensively build-out, so most operators will have to rely on other technologies like Wi-Fi, femto and picocells to create the largest possible network as possible and provide the best in-building coverage. So this is going to take some time. As LTE is just rolling out today, don’t expect ubiquitous coverage to happen overnight, but with a multiple technology approach, we could see improvements in coverage and speed when it finally begins to mature five years from now.
Category: AT&T Networks Sprint Nextel cellular wireless carriers Tags: cellular, DAS, LTE, mobile
by Phillip Redman | May 2, 2011 | 1 Comment
Today is Capital Markets day at RIM where they talk about the year behind and the year ahead to financial analysts. But this week is also its annual wireless conference, BlackBerry World and it made two important announcements that’s going to impact enterprise mobility management. First, RIM is finally moving into multi-OS device support by acquiring the mobile device management (MDM) vendor Ubitexx, based out of Munich, Germany. Ubitexx was listed on our MDM Magic Quadrant and is a fairly strong provider in its market. RIM will eventually, in a year or so, integrate its multi-device capability into the BES. This will allow one-stop management for BlackBerry, Android, iOS and other devices. However, don’t expect RIM to be able to match the 550 policies it has for BB on other devices. Like any other MDM vendor, it will be limited to what the OS vendor will allow for support. Though no pricing was announced, it may drive up BES licensing costs, as co-CEO Jim Balsillie announced that the deal was also an opportunity for increased revenue.
RIM also announced the shipping of BlackBerry Balance. This is RIM’s capability for managing and securing corporate from personal data, which was announced earlier this year. There’s no doubt that the consumerization of mobile IT is placing a lot of stress on securing corporate data on personal devices. Other MDM vendors also provide containers around corporate data to allow additional security. The nice thing about doing this on the BlackBerry will be the consistent interface and integrated BES solution. Porting this capability to other OSes will be important as RIM moves deeper into MDM.
RIM is smart for supporting other devices on its BES. There’s no doubt as other platforms began to be supported into the enterprise RIM was worried about its position. If RIM can do for the enterprise what Apple has done for consumers–being a one-stop shop for enterprise devices, applications, content, management–it will be a more successful strategy than only selling smartphone devices, which are under constant pricing pressure and the threat of commoditization.
Category: Enterprise IT Mobile Device Management RIM mobile phones mobility management Tags: Enterprise, MDM, RIM, Smartphone
